The Whitehall blob grows! The number of civil servants has risen by 100,000 since 2016 with taxpayers footing a £17 billion bill for salaries

• Research found that more than 100,000 officials have been taken on since 2016
• It is estimated that the total salary bill for Whitehall is now topping £17billion  

The civil service has grown by almost a quarter in recent years, the biggest increase in half a century, a report reveals today.

Research has found that more than 100,000 officials have been taken on since the year of the EU referendum, with the total salary bill for Whitehall now topping £17billion.

Most of the ‘top-heavy’ growth has been seen among the senior mandarins who are paid as much as £200,000 a year, rather than among frontline staff who guard borders or prisons, the TaxPayers’ Alliance found.

And the payroll has continued to rise despite Government promises to cut it once extra staff taken on to deal with Brexit and the Covid pandemic were no longer needed.

Last night John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the tax burden is at ‘near-record levels’, with Britons ‘paying through the nose for the boom in public sector employment’.

He added: ‘What’s more, there is a growing sense that public services are worse than before the hiring spree, not better.

Research has found that more than 100,000 officials have been taken on since the year of the EU referendum, with the total salary bill for Whitehall now topping £17billion

‘Only once politicians start to be honest about what the state can reasonably be expected to do can we wind down functions and scrap unnecessary jobs.’

Analysis of official figures by the pressure group found that between March 2016 and March this year, civil service employment increased by 24 per cent – from 418,340 to 519,780. The 101,440 extra staff taken on outnumber the entire regular forces of the British Army.

Most of the new workers were recruited from March 2020 onwards, suggesting they were needed to respond to the pandemic rather than Britain’s departure from the EU.

But the report noted that the civil service workforce has not fallen in the year since mass testing and other emergency measures introduced during Covid ended.

Most of the added staff taken on (87 per cent) were in the three top pay grades, while there was a 11 per cent fall in the most junior ranks.

As more staff are now in higher grades, there are more receiving higher salaries so the wage bill has risen despite ministers’ attempts to crack down on public sector pay rises. ‘The reason salaries increased by so much more than the pay awards is principally because of grade inflation,’ the report said. There has been an 88 per cent rise in the number of officials receiving more than £100,000 and a near-tripling of those paid more than £75,000.

‘Combined with the growth in overall numbers, grade inflation on that scale has meant a substantial increase in the salary bill,’ the report added.

A pledge by former prime minister Boris Johnson’s government vowing to cut the number of civil servants by as many as 91,000 was abandoned by Rishi Sunak’s administration and replaced by orders for departments to find efficiency savings 

The Cabinet Office does not publish the total pay bill but the TaxPayers’ Alliance estimates it has risen from £11.5billion to £17.8billion over the past six years, when both part- and full-time employees are included.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance claimed that the number of civil servants earning more than £100,000 has risen so steeply because Whitehall has been using a loophile to get around public sector pay freezes.

They said promotions, which mean civil servants get higher salaries, are being used instead.

The report also found that one in three of the new jobs were in London despite ministers pledging to ‘level up’ the regions by relocating Whitehall posts.

Although more than half of staff are classed as frontline, the biggest growth in recent years has been among policymakers, the numbers of whom have almost doubled.

It comes despite former prime minister Boris Johnson’s government vowing to cut the number of civil servants by as many as 91,000 in order to get the workforce back to pre-Brexit and Covid levels.

That pledge was abandoned by Rishi Sunak’s administration and replaced by orders for departments to find efficiency savings instead.

However, it emerged last week that Health Secretary Steve Barclay has managed to axe hundreds of officials in his department since taking office in October, with the total falling from 3,978 to 3,316.

Government sources last night insisted that the salary bill has not risen disproportionately given inflation, and that civil service employment has decreased in London in the past year.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: ‘As you’d expect, during temporary and exceptional events, such as the pandemic, staff numbers increased to help tackle Covid, including the world-leading vaccine programme. We are committed to efficiency and have made nearly £8billion in savings in the last two financial years.’

A source close to Cabinet Office minister Jeremy Quin added: ‘The most effective route to a smaller civil service is to ensure it’s more productive. That’s what we are focused on delivering.’

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